Project 366 2016 Week 1

Project 366 2016 Week 1

I’m welcoming in 2016 with my third year with this project, and my first experiencing a leap year on the blog!  So here is my Project 366 2016 Week 1 with The Boy and Me.

Friday 1st January – Day 1

Project 366 2016 Week 1

We had no real plans as Daddy P would be going back to work late at night.  So the day was mostly spent at home.  We persuaded Monkey to watch a couple of films (wow!!) before sitting down to a Roast Duck lunch.  Totally delicious, I should cook it more often.

We decided to go for a walk in the afternoon, in the rain, just to get out in the fresh air for a little bit.

Saturday 2nd January – Day 2

Project 366 2016 Week 1

Daddy P was working and it rained, a lot.  Monkey was happy to be at home and I decided to take the Christmas Tree down and get the living room back to normality.  Sadly my back didn’t appreciate this very much and an SOS call was made to get me some painkillers pronto.  Not the best start to the year so far!

Sunday 3rd January – Day 3

Project 366 2016 Week 1

We’d invited Iona and family down from Redpeffer for the day so we could all go to the Sunday Scramble event at Bicester Heritage.  We all like our cars so were looking forward to seeing the various displays and workshops.  The weather was atrocious so I left my Canon safely at home, but kitted out in our full waterproofs we ventured out.

I adore this Dino and it’s even in my colour!  I also love vintage Bentley’s, so to see a workshop full of these lovely classic cars being restored was just wonderful.  But the weather and my back had to call it a day, and we headed out for a late lunch.  We all agree though that we’d be back again for an event in the future.

Monday 4th January – Day 4

Project 366 2016 Week 1

How can today be the last day of the holidays?  I let Monkey decide what he wanted to do for the day.  We tried out his Water Experiments set he’d had for his birthday, watched Daddy P’s Yorkshire Steam DVD, read books and just enjoyed being together.  Pretty much summing up the last two weeks really.  We’ve both had a much-needed rest.

Tuesday 5th January – Day 5

Project 366 Week 1

Back to school – urrgh! We had tears and I almost had to drag Monkey to school this morning.  His teacher peeled him off me at the classroom door, our typical first day back. Never gets any easier though.  I’d basically shut the blog down for 2 weeks so today was my first proper day back at the laptop.  Admin done and time to get a few posts written up.

Monkey was much happier when I picked him up, phew!

Wednesday 6th January – Day 6

Project 366 Week 1

Monkey is very attached to his Biff Worry eater and Geoffrey the Giraffe.  He gives them both a kiss goodbye in the morning and always has a cuddle when he gets home from school.  The morning tears were replaced with general moaning about having to go to school – yep, we’re back to normal here.

I had my hair cut and coloured and got on with some housework, home admin which have both been rather neglected recently.

Thursday 7th January – Day 7

Project 366 2016 Week 1

So this little chap is growing up fast.  This morning he decided to say goodbye to his personalised dinosaur place mat and his named coaster.  I want to be like you Mummy, and I want to have a change of view.  With that he moved his chair so he’s sitting opposite me, rather than next to me.  Great for conversations, not so great when I’m trying to get him to read his school book, but all part of being a 6 year old.

I’ve left my 2014-15 tax return until the last month again, so today was the day to blast through the receipts, payments and mileage and get my return processed.  All sorted and I started putting 2015-16 in order too. I’m determined that this is the year I send my return in promptly and record things as I’m going along.

Friday 8th January – Day 8

Project 366 2016 Week 1

Frosty morning! Walked to school with Monkey and then drove over to see an old friend and her little boy who were staying at her Mums.  Lovely to catch up as we haven’t seen each other for ages.  When I was driving home I was so tempted to pull over and take a photo.  The sky was blue and there were horses in the fields.  But I didn’t, so this my friends is blue sky noted in Oxfordshire from the back garden. Sadly it wasn’t long before the grey skies were back.

Monkey was not impressed, he’s got spellings to learn and they seem to have leapt up in difficulty, so I can see a few battles ahead over the next week trying to persuade him to try to learn them!

Saturday 9th January – Day 9

Project 366 2016 Week 1

A mixed bag so far today.  We started the day with screaming, tears and I hate you Mummy.  Yes that would be Spelling Hell then.  Spelling tests were only introduced in the last few weeks of term last year and the words were really easy.  Monkey seems to be having a different teacher for this element this term and the sheet contains harder words and more of them.  Cue meltdown, not helped by the tiny boxes that he’s meant to write in, he scrapped that pronto and I created my own super sized sheets, or not one letter would have made it to the page.  After much cajoling we got the spellings done and he only got one wrong, with much sounding out etc.  Doing this every evening after school is going to be ‘interesting’ to say the least.  Any tips?

So on to the happy stuff!  Monkey asked me yesterday if we could go swimming.  Music to my ears as he hasn’t wanted to go at all since I cancelled his lessons last year.  So off we went, we had to wait 40 minutes to get in the junior pool, he’s really not ready for the big pool.  But once there, he’d got his woggle and he was off like a fish.  He even managed some unassisted doggy paddle and went on his back with the woggle a bit too.  Stage 2 swimming didn’t work for him at all, but today I saw the confidence coming back.  He had a ball and has already asked when we can go back again.  Small steps, happy Mummy.

 

43 thoughts on “Project 366 2016 Week 1

  1. Lovely photos! Oh dear about the return to school…I hope things are easier soon!
    That’s great that he asked to go swimming….It sounds like he did really well x

  2. Love the car!
    I’ve never made roast duck myself, although I love it. I’m a bit intimidated by the idea. I should try.
    Hope your back is better ASAP!

  3. That’s great news about the swimming and a lovely photo of Monkey eating his breakfast. Sorry to hear about the spellings, though! No advice unfortunately, other than just to persist and to stay firm without losing the plot (not easy I know!).
    Love the vintage cars too. It’s a bit of a trek for you, but you would love the Chateau Impney Hill Climb in July!

  4. Hope the school settling in again and spellings acceptance improves soon.

    I know the swapping seats thing, although we seem to have that every day – when N decided to tell everyone else where they’re sitting.

    It’s great that he’s chosen to go back swimming again. Sounds like him giving it a go on his own may be the way to go.

  5. We have the battles over homework and spellings – it only gets worst! I was the one being dragged kicking and screaming in tears back to school last week so I know how Monkey feels 😉 x

  6. Oh it’s so hard going back isn’t it? We had tears too and we have regular weekly spelling tests which take FOREVER to get through as he gets distracted so quickly. We get a new sheet every Friday and make him do a couple of words each day and randomly ask him to sound it out in the car. It makes it much less painful. Good luck with it (and hope your back is a lot better) xx

  7. Sorry to read the return to school was hard for Monkey. I don’t like the sound of those spellings. I’m so glad the swimming went well. Monkey really sounds like he will do things when he is ready, a boy after my own heart ;0) x

  8. Sorry to hear that you hurt your back, I hope it is ok now. Tax returns time is coming up, I try to do mine in April otherwise I know I’d forget until last minute. I feel your spellings pain. My 11yo hates doing any homework other than maths. We have had tears, shouting the lot so I know how hard it is. I hope that things improve. Have a lovely week x

  9. Sorry to hear that you’re having a battle over spelling homework, and that back to school has been tough. But what great news that Monkey asked to go swimming!

  10. Wow! Can’t believe that you have manage to post for three years. I did it for half a year and gave up ages ago! Oops!
    Homework is hard work! I also having trouble with kids with spelling!
    Good that he is keen to go back swimming. It means a lot!

  11. My week has been quite similar: getting back to normal, catching up with house stuff and blog. Did more house than blog this week, but hoping to be the other way around next week. Giood news about Monkey and swimming.

  12. Glad to read he wanted to go swimming, nice when they make up their mind to so something like that. What as shame about the meltdown going back to school, leaves you both traumatised. Nice to read day 2 a bit better.
    Homework is imo not necessary especially at that age.

  13. Oh homework and spellings are rubbish, they put so much pressure on the little ones. We need to get back into this routine with mine and it is really hard.

  14. Spelling is a last minute thing here. I hope to change that this year. Children just don’t see the point! We have to make sentences with the words too. My cheeky son tries his best to group words together in a sentence so he has to write less!

  15. Hurrah for wanting to go swimming, but boo-hoo for nasty old spellings. In all honesty, I’d speak to his teacher because the last thing we want is for our pupils to be scared off. Thank you for all your support with 365, glad to be back!

  16. Sounds like a mixed start to the New Year. I always find getting back to normal after the Christmas break the hardest – you have so much fun for two weeks and then have to say goodbye to relaxing and back to early mornings. Hope this week has been easier for you both.

  17. Ah nice to see you returning.. I’m back too for this year although only doing one photo! Monkey is growing up, I can’t remember is he in year2 or year 1? We hate spelling too and I was wondering if you’re in the same year as my twins, they’re year 2. It’s horrible going back to school after the holidays. Hopefully next week (this) will be better xx #project366

  18. A rather up and down week. What a pity Monkey finds it so difficult to return to school.
    I can’t understand how schools think it’s a good idea to set homework for primary school children. Reading, well yes but spellings? The modern age!

  19. Hope your back is feeling better, we had the same battle over going back to school with the six of them and it doesn’t get any easier even at high school and college!
    We found the same with Eowyns spellings last year, easy for the first term and then super difficult, she still groans every week!

  20. sorry i took so long to read and reply to the last 3 weeks of project 366, but with the adult children visiting and starting a new job I’ve had little time for anything, just about managing to keep up with posting a photo every day. Sorry to hear about the spelling tests, how did he get on with them?

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